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MacNN News closed down as of July 1, 2016. We do not know the reason, but low profitability is a suspect. Ad rates both per-view and per-click have decreased greatly in the past several years, impacting many web sites.

The News site will remain online, with little or no updates, presumably so long as ad revenue pays the server costs.

The Forums will remain online and open as usual, so long as forum ad revenue and residual News ad revenue pays the costs. The costs are thought to be hosting costs and the vB license.

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Step 1: Search and Research
First, search to see if anyone has posted the same question or item. If you have a question, search for relevant keywords. (It helps to restrict your search to the relevant forum.) Do a general web search for the problem, too — you're probably not the first person to encounter it.

If it's a really hot topic (like a new program or device), chances are there are already one or more active threads about it. Look in those before posting.

If you have a link that you think might interest people, search the forum you planned to post in for the URL you planned to link to. Especially if it's older than just 1 or 2 days, it's probably already been shown here before and thus not of interest to most.

Don't resurrect ancient threads. If your search finds a relevant thread that doesn't answer your question, but that's more than about 6 months old, the information in it is probably partly outdated. Instead, post a new thread, but include a link to the old thread as a reference. This shows people that you did your homework.

Step 2: Choose where to post
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Check the forum you plan to post in for any sticky threads: these contain common questions, or rules concerning that forum.

Step 3: Name the thread
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Step 4: Post your question
Ask your question correctly. "How to ask questions the right way" is a good place to start. (Though it's written with Linux questions in mind, the same principles apply.) Again, leave out pleas for help and just stick to describing the problem.

Step 5: Follow up
Thank those who took the time to respond, and follow up with a report of whether their suggestions did or did not help.

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